Kubota diesel 4.5 hp using 24/7 at off grid camp

[Jesse McB]

Hi everyone! I thought it be fun to post of my so far good experience with the 4.5 hp kubota diesel. I'm at my camp in Novascoita, it's on a long dirt road that stretches far into the woods. No hydro lines in sight for kms .  I have a 20 L diesel can attached, with a cheap fuel filter, no water Separator yet    I'm truly amazed as it's really burning just air lol! The engine is running a 60 amp alternator for battery charging, and a 3kw st Chinese generator head for 120 Vac. I have a 750 watt ac going, a 100 watt mini fridge, and 200 watts of other stuff going on, and here's the big thing, I have it running 24/7 non stop for 4 days and it burned only 34 litres! That's 355 ml an hour for a 1 kw load!!! I never seen a diesel burn so little fuel! I'll be posting a few pics of my setup! It's extremely temporary as I'm pouring a concrete floor to build a far away genny shed far from the cabin!  

[LowGear]

Interesting system.  I'd be very curious what a 4.5 hp Kubota looks like.  The calculator reports your 34 liters to be almost 9 gallons of fuel for about 96 KW.  10 KW per gallon at the end of a gravel road sounds good.  The joke at our farm is "There's nothing as permanent as temporary."

[Jesse McB]

I will post a few pics of the kubota diesel and send links of videos on YouTube, I have to mention the ac Cycled a lot at night, so I will have to get a power meter and see what actually going on! I got a bigger ac for my cabin now, a 8000 btu unit, the 3 kw st Gen head starts it easy. I have a very small mini fridge I run, it's weird  it seems to run a good surge when it starts for some reason. The 4.5hp kubota looks just like them laidong Diesel engine made in China, sort of like a 12hp S195 but miniature in size and has counterbalance shafts. It weights 100 pounds. It's rated speed is 2000 rpm, I have it running at 1800 rpm for the st Gen head.

[glort]

You could have you fuel consumption by adding 50% Veg or engine oil to your diesel.  :0)
Myself, I'd be running 100% Veg those little horizontal Cyl Diesels love it.

Maybe you shouldn't build you shed so far away but rather spend a bit on sound insulation instead.  That way you'll save on cable, won't be so far to go out in the cold if you have to start, stop or refuel it and it also makes it easier to set up a co gen system.

What batteries are You charging and what do you do with them?  I have had a few setups where I just ran car/ truck alts to charge batteries and ran the load off an inverter. This is particularly useful when the loads are erratic or minimal like with fridges, lights etc. With not too many batteries you could get some solar panels and a charger and reduce/ eliminate a lot of your daytime loads which would make it easier on your little engine.

Still waiting to get my 5 Hp " swan" brand Horozontal driving the 3 phase induction motor.  Set it all up the other day using the pulley from my little 3 Hp engine and couldn't get the motor to energize. had a suspicion which I came in and checked out and sure enough....  the 5 HP is 2200 RPM. the little one is 2800. I need 2450 to get the motor to energise with the gearing I have.  Got to get onto making up a plate to replace the original pulley with stubshaft I can put any pulley I want on.

I did pick up a couple more Diesels in the last few weeks.  Yesterday I got another 6 Hp china vertical.  2 weeks ago I got an air cooled Ruggerini twin which does 30 HP.
I'm talking to a guy atm who has a 9KW 3 phase gen head on a petrol Engine.  That seems to have the PTO plate and coupling I need to bolt straight to the flywheel of the Italian so Hopefully will just be a straight engine swap with maybe a new mounting platform and a set of gauges like you did for your little gen.  I also have a 13 Hp Ruggerini which I might try with the alt if I get it as the 30 HP would seem a lot of over kill and I'd like to put that on a lawn tractor If I can find a suitable one.

Today I started a Conversion on a 2 Wheel walking tractor. going to replace the old Side valve Honda petrol with the China Diesel I bought yesterday.  Looks pretty Straight forward. the Diesel is of course bigger  and wider so I'll have to make up a motor Mount plate to Bolt to the original mounting holes and offset the Diesel about an inch across to line up the drive pulleys.  I'll need to get a new Pulley for the engine as it's 19MM and the original was 5/8 and a slightly longer belt.
Have plenty of work in store for the thing!

You haven't come across anyone selling the PTO Stub shaft plates for the China Horizontals have you Jess? 
You are the western King of procurement of all things China Diesel!